Conclusion

Looted artefacts constituted worlds within worlds for the communities from which they were taken.

My proposal is based on the premise that the digital environment is a profound territory, which, despite it having emerged as a result of military research, it nonetheless offers a highly subversive and emancipatory space. To me, the digital environment is a social practice and a cultural technique which can be mobilized to decolonize and democratize collections, histories, and to activate artefacts and their ghosts. As much as we live in a post-colonial world, we also live in a post-digital world. Thus, the colonial patina is everywhere, as computing is silent but ubiquitous.

As such, through the boundless potential of the digital space, namely the one of video game engines, one can challenge the notion of ‘archiving’ and perform acts of restitution and restoration.

N.B. FINAL WORD COUNT 498

Please note that the brief chapter, the quotes, the image captions and bibliography are not included in the word count.